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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading Torvalds: GPL Needs Minor Work (eWeek) eWeek talks with Linus Torvalds about the GPL v3. "I'm a big-picture thinker when it comes to licenses, which really means that in the end, I don't care as much about the actual details as Eben [Moglen] does. So, no. My concerns about a GPL [Version] 3 aren't the same as his. My biggest concern is that licenses are something ... personal to developers, and even trivial modifications to the GPL will cause endless debates, and that can easily derail any attempts to improve it. In the end, while I certainly don't tend to agree with the FSF on all the politics, I think the fact that the FSF does control the license and [FSF founder] Richard Stallman has a lot of respect in the community means that a new license is possible."
Linux for Suits: Grass Roots vs. Giant Roars (Linux Journal) Doc Searls wonders what happened with the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF). "Even if CELF eventually does produce a working distro, it reminds us in the meantime that Linux is fundamentally a grass-roots phenomenon. It's bottom-up, not top-down. I don't mean to discredit IBM, HP, Novell, Oracle or any of the other BigCos that promote Linux, support its development and fly the penguin flag. I do mean to credit the little guys who not only develop Linux, but deploy it in the marketplace. Especially the ones who deliver and not merely promise."
The 1994 USL-Regents of UCal Settlement Agreement (Groklaw) Groklaw has come up with a copy of the (formerly) secret settlement agreement between Unix System Laboratories and the University of California. "Now we know why SCO keeps telling us the case is 'just a contract' case, why it has a penchant for suing only those who are, or were, their licensees, and why it sued IBM instead of Red Hat. USL preserves its rights against licensees under the license agreements. I see no expanded rights against third parties who are not licensees, just the preexisting right to try to sue them, with the same likely outcome that USL experienced when it tried to sue the University and BSDi, using the same lame copyright claims that the judge back then found so unconvincing."
Trade Shows and Conferences Inside EuroBSDCon 2004 (O'ReillyNet) O'ReillyNet reports from EuroBSDCon 2004. "Jordan kept pushing the button on innovations. Where is the alternative thinking? In the Linux world, if there is a new hardware, idea, or project, there's always someone who stands up and start working on it. Maybe that person will not complete what he or she started or maybe the result will be of low quality, but at least someone tried to contribute. This doesn't happen in the BSD world."
The SCO Problem SCO motion to stay DaimlerChrysler denied (Groklaw) Groklaw reports that an attempt by the SCO Group to put the DaimlerChrysler case on hold until the IBM case is decided has been denied by the judge. "I think we may be seeing the first indication of what happens when you put a cap on legal fees. Moral of the story? Pay your lawyer." The next hearing in this case (which now just relates to whether DaimlerChrysler responded quickly enough to SCO's demands) is on January 7.
Companies Intel more active in desktop Linux (News.com) News.com reports that Intel will be shipping desktop Linux installation kits along with its processors to OEMs in Asia. "The kit includes driver software, which enables use of specific hardware features; scripts to quickly install software that has been validated to work with various versions of Linux; and a program called the Application Version Compliance Tool that checks to make sure programs are compatible with those Linux versions and Intel electronics."
Lycos screensaver to blitz spam servers (Register) The Register reports that Lycos has come up with a new approach to spam: distribute a "screen saver" which performs distributed denial of service attacks against spammer sites. "A spokesman for Lycos in Germany told The Register he believed that the tool could generate 3.4MB in traffic on a daily basis. When 10m screensavers are downloaded and used, the numbers quickly add up, to 33TB of 'useless' IP traffic. Seems Lycos may hurt not just spammers."
Linux Adoption A Year of Victory for Linux (eWeek) eWeek reports a good year for Linux. "Who's using Linux? Everybody. Small companies, Fortune 50 enterprises, nonprofits, governments. Everybody. Why? Because, when you cut through all of the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), all of the bought and paid-for ROI (return on investment) and TCO (total cost of ownership) studies, all of the intellectual property fears, the bottom line is that Linux simply works."
Linux slashes costs for bank giant (ComputerWeekly) ComputerWeekly looks at Linux use at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. "One of the biggest investment banks in Europe is using Linux for up to 70% of its new IT projects after finding that running the open source operating system on Intel-based servers cut running costs by nearly half."
The real cost of open source (FCW.com) This Federal Computer Week article covers the adoption of open source software by the U.S. Marshal Service. "For the past few years, the Marshal Service has been replacing SCO Group Unix with Linux in some back-office systems. Earlier this year, officials began implementing JBoss Web application servers, another open-source package, across the agency's 94 district offices. Traditional commercial alternatives would have cost $50,000 per processor in software licenses, and "that would have been cost-prohibitive," Campbell said. "JBoss is free upfront; we only have to pay for maintenance."" (Thanks to David A. Wheeler)
Legal Linus Torvalds gets software patents wrong, says attorney (Out-Law) Out-Law.com is carrying a critical response to Linus Torvalds on European software patents. "Torvalds and his supporters lack a fundamental understanding of intellectual property rights as they seem to be unaware that copyright can only protect software code, and not software inventions. Allowing for patent protection on software inventions is a requirement of the World Trade Organisation's TRIPS agreement which states that patents must be available in all fields of technology." (Thanks to James Heald).
Interviews Scott Wheeler: Perspectives on KDE Multimedia (OfB.biz) Eduardo Sánchez interviews Scott Wheeler, KDE multimedia hacker, on Open for Business. "SW: The beginnings of the introduction of aRts into KDE took place at the KDE 2 meeting. It did indeed show quite a bit of promise. Stefan pitched it to the GNOME folks at GUADEC (Gnome Users and Developers' European Conference) one year as well. aRts continued to move along for a few years and kind of reached a high point in terms of stability in 2001 or so. But as you mentioned, it was mostly developed by Stefan Westerfeld --in fact it was almost exclusively developed by Stefan, which when he became somewhat disenchanted with it eventually led to problems. I suppose we can understand those in the context of a few things that happened --or rather didn't happen." (Found on KDE.News)
Postfix's Wietse Venema Interviewed (Linux IT) Linux IT talks with Postfix creator Wietse Venema. The interview is available in English and in Portuguese. "How and when did the idea of making Postfix start?When I came to IBM research as a visiting scientist late 1996, I had a little list of projects that I wanted to work on. One of those was to build a mail system with the same quality as my TCP Wrapper software: something that just does the job without causing trouble, and that you can forget after you install it. At the time, there were four CERT/CC advisories for Sendmail each year."
Resources Network and Identity Configurator for Linux (IBM AlphaWorks) IBM AlphaWorks introduces a new configuration tool. "Network and Identity Configurator for Linux® (NICL) is a tool that enables easy changing of the system name and network address of Linux systems and IBM middleware. It employs a BASH script that can save multiple man-months in system configuration time. This tool was developed within IBM for administrating an internal block of Linux systems."
Wireless on the Road (Linux Journal) Linux Journal looks for wireless connections in out of the way places. "Wireless Internet access has become easy to find in large cities. But I take vacations in more out-of-the-way places, where "the Internet" still is a new concept. Getting Internet access in most small towns isn't always a straightforward task. Here are some tips that might help you keep your Linux laptop connected on your next trip."
Reviews Open-Source payroll application launched (ZDNet UK) ZDNet looks at a new payroll application. "Clockwork Software Systems launched PayThyme, an open-source payroll application, in Birmingham on Thursday. At the company's launch event in Birmingham, Clockwork business manager Jim Welch said it was initially supplying the software pre-installed on hardware, but will supply it as an individual, supported product in 2005. The source code of the product will be available for free download from the company's Web site in two weeks."
The sweet taste of good customer relations (NewsForge) NewsForge takes a look at SugarCRM. "Sugar Sales should be able to satisfy most of the CRM needs of small to medium-sized businesses. As an open source product built to run on top of other open source products, Sugar Sales offers the same cost-effectiveness you find with any open source product, and it has an impressive feature set for the time it has been in development. That means we can reasonably expect it to improve quickly too."
The open source wiki behind Wikipedia (NewsForge) NewsForge reviews MediaWiki. " From a user perspective, MediaWiki provides a simple, feature rich environment for editing and contributing content. Content is handled with a simple WYSIWYG editor that makes editing accessible to anyone by default even without a login. All articles also have a discussion tab that allows readers to comment on the article as well as a history tab that lets you view version history when edits have been made. Its ease of use has no doubt been a contributing factor in the growth of Wikipedia."
Miscellaneous Why Install Linux on Your Mac? (O'ReillyNet) O'ReillyNet wonders why anybody would replace OS X with Linux. "If you want some element of Linux -- access to certain tools and development environment capabilities, for example -- what you require is already built into Mac OS X. But if you wish to go further, to take maximum control of your computer, and do so on some of the best quality hardware around, Linux makes a lot of sense on a Mac. It offers the kind of low-cost, easy-to-use, properly scalable system that Apple's commercial offering just can't match."
VA drives open-source health records initiative (FCW.com) Federal Computer Week looks at the reuse of code from the Department of Veterans Affairs. "Twenty-year-old software developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs could serve as the low-cost building block of a nationwide electronic health care record (EHR) system President Bush wants officials to deploy within the next decade, according to health management experts." (Thanks to David A. Wheeler)
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